LEFT TO DIE

No one helped Tierney Dietz as her body convulsed from a cocaine
overdose. By the time she was left at hospital, it was too late

Tierney Dietz often told her friends she was going to be
famous.

Someone was going to pick her out of a crowd and place her on the path
to stardom.

Last month, her name appeared in the newspaper. Sadly, it was in the
form of an obituary.

The 18-year-old Cambrian College student died of a drug
overdose.

Nancy Dean knew too well that her daughter struggled with drugs. And
while the mother tries to cope with losing her only child, she can't
help but dwell on the circumstances surrounding her daughter's death.

Dean believes her death was preventable - and so does the emergency
department doctor who received the girl's lifeless body in the early
morning of March 1.

Aside from the blaring dangers of drugs, Dean is convinced a lack of
moral responsibility led to Dietz's death.

"I'm just really shocked as is everyone I know that it's OK to see
someone in obvious medical distress and not do anything," said Dean.
The mother is left to piece together what happened the night Dietz
overdosed through what she has learned from investigators and people
who knew the teen.

What she knows is that Dietz and another 17-year-old friend were
dropped off at a house on Westview Crescent in Lively on Feb. 29 by
two friends.

Dean said the girls were in the company of a 47-year-old man who gave
them cocaine.

Dean said the girls didn't have any money for drugs.

"At some point, Tierney started to convulse," said Dean. "They did
nothing, they didn't call an ambulance or anything."

It's not clear how many people were inside the home or how much time
elapsed, but rather than call 911, the two people who dropped off the
girls were eventually called to come pick them up, she said. Dean said
there was a snowstorm and the driver was in Chelmsford, so another 40
minutes went by before they arrived at the Lively home.

The Walden Emergency Services Station - where ambulances are
permanently housed and paramedics wait to be dispatched 24 hours a day
- - is less than one kilometre away from the house.

If the people who accompanied Dietz that night were afraid of
potential drug charges, "they could have carried her to the station
within five minutes," said Dean.

"She weighed about 90 pounds."

Or, she said, they could have dropped her off and then made an
anonymous call.

When Dietz was admitted to Sudbury Regional Hospital, she was
"essentially dead on arrival," said Dr. Chris Bourdon, medical
director of the emergency department.

"If you look at the circumstances, I believe that this is something
that didn't have to happen," said Bourdon.

"This was a survivable event if care and attention (was) provided to
her immediately."

Some drug overdoses can cause immediate death; however, most often
there's time to respond from an emergency standpoint, said Bourdon.

Personnel are trained to handle problems arising from an overdose,
such as cardiac arrhythmia.

"If someone is around, and knows CPR, administering CPR is the first
and most important thing to do, (or) activating 911 and getting the
advance help of paramedics and then ultimately to the hospital," said
Bourdon.

"There are very few, if any, overdoses that will cause an immediate
and sudden cardiac death."

A cocaine overdose can lead to an immediate heart attack, or create
seizures because of the lack of oxygen to the brain. Visible symptoms
of a cocaine overdose are chest pains, sweating, nausea and erratic
heart beat.

Although Dean was told her daughter died of a drug overdose, the
coroner's report is not yet complete. It could be months before
toxicology tests - to determine what exact drug or drugs killed Dietz
- - are done.

Dean is sickened by the thought that no charges will be laid in her
daughter's death.

"I just don't understand how they weren't required to call an
ambulance," she said.

"People or parents believe that wherever there are kids, we're
obligated to get medical attention and call an ambulance if they're in
distress. Well, we're not obligated and I find that shocking."

Dean encourages the public to pressure politicians to adopt a
"duty-to-assist law."

"Unless people speak out for a law like this, nothing is going to
change," she said.

But Dean has many more questions.

"And what is a 47-year-old man doing providing drugs for kids?" she
asked. "Is there no crime in that?"

Dietz, however, was 18 and considered to be a consenting adult in the
eyes of the law.

Dean has been told it's unlikely charges will be laid against any of
the bystanders.

Greater Sudbury Deputy Police Chief Frank Elsner confirmed no charges
have been laid.

He said it would be up to the coroner whether police should
investigate further, although he doesn't see that happening.

"To the best of my knowledge, we wouldn't investigate this further,
unless there was some criminality brought to our attention," Elsner
said.

Since the case is not a homicide, it's not on the police priority list
and it could be months before toxicology results are in.

Elsner spoke in general terms about the case and explained for charges
to be warranted in such a situation, investigators would have to prove
bystanders knew the person was in immediate danger.

"If you have a roomful of people who are in the same state of
intoxication as the person who is going into convulsions, as example,
the test would be hard because they're not thinking properly either,"
Elsner said.

Failing to provide the necessities of life is punishable under the
Criminal Code of Canada; however, it only applies to parents,
guardians or spouses.

Intoxication is not a defence against committing a criminal act, but
if someone looks like they're "passed out," that's different than
watching someone bleeding to death, he said.

Elsner would not go into detail about what transpired the night of
Feb. 29, because it's an ongoing investigation. Elsner and other
police officials would not confirm whether witnesses saw Dietz
convulsing. The information would be outlined in the sudden death
report, which includes statements from those who were present when
Dietz overdosed.

"It was a party and the rest of it is the legal stuff of how we would
have taken charge of the body and that kind of stuff - that's the bulk
of this report," said Elsner.

The Sudbury Star filed a Freedom of Information request April 8 with
the Greater Sudbury Police Service to get the sudden death report.

However, unless The Star was acting on behalf of Dietz's estate, the
information would not be released. Police don't release sudden death
reports to third parties because they contain personal information,
The Star was told.

Unlike some European countries, Canadian law doesn't require people to
assist someone in distress.

In Germany, the Netherlands and France, citizens have a legal duty to
come to someone's aid if the person is in a life-threatening situation
and could be helped without danger to the rescuer.

When Princess Diana died in September 1997, the photographers who
swarmed her crashed vehicle were prosecuted for violating France's
duty-to-assist law. The law required the photographers to put their
cameras down and help the Princess, rather than capture her last dying
moments on film.

In Canada, unless you're trained to perform a medical intervention,
you don't have a legal obligation to help out in a crisis situation,
explained Rosanna Langer, associate professor of law and justice at
Laurentian University.

Canada does have a law protecting Good Samaritans from any legal
liability.

"If you try to apply CPR to someone and you didn't really know what
you were doing and broke their rib cage, you're not going to be liable
for charges because you undertook that action under necessity," said
Langer.

If you try and save someone's life and, in the process, the person in
distress dies, you're not held responsible.

But that doesn't mean you're legally obligated to help. "We find it
morally abhorrent that someone could die in the company of others who
didn't intervene," said Langer.

"But at the same time, I have to endorse the position taken by the
police, which is if the others were under the influence of (mind)
altering substances, not only do we have the question of were they
able to understand what was going on, to what extent were they able to
understand her level of distress and to what extent were they able to
intervene in a meaningful way."

Intoxication could be used as a defence, but since there's no legal
obligation to intervene, there's no need for a defence.

"What troubles us with this sort of situation is we would like to
inject some sort of moral obligation on her care, but there's no legal
intervention in Canada for them to intervene," said Langer.

However, there is a difference in proving criminal and civil
responsibility.

To be criminally responsible, you would have to prove mens rea - that
the person had a guilty mind, said Elsner.

In this case, you would have to prove that the partygoers knew Tierney
was going to die or she was in serious medical distress and did
nothing to help, the deputy police chief said.

"Nobody else was there, so it's a very difficult thing to prove," said
Elsner.

"It's a lot easier to prove in civil court. In civil court, it's the
balance of probabilities: should they have known, as opposed to did
they know."

Nancy Dean hasn't considered pursuing the case in civil court. She
fights back tears as she tries to understand how she came to bury her
daughter.

At Christmas, Dietz was on the road to recovery, her mom
said.

The teen moved back home after promising she'd stop doing
drugs.

"She had decided she either wanted to be a counsellor or she was going
into hotel and restaurant management," said Dean.

In February, she enrolled in Cambrian College's academic upgrading
program and began to admit she had a substance abuse problem. She was
seeing a psychiatrist and taking anti-depressants, but something lured
her back to drugs.

"Our last few interactions were pretty nasty," said Dean. "I had to do
the tough-love thing to help her for the future. Now there's no
future, just the tough-love part."

Dean had been fighting to get help for her daughter since she was 14.
A shy girl, Dietz fell in with the wrong crowd when she entered
Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School.

She ran away from home and began hanging around people known to
police.

Dean went as far as dressing up as a teen, concealing herself with a
hoodie and pair of sunglasses, and spending time in the downtown area
in hopes of learning where her daughter was.

When her daughter started dating a known drug dealer, Dean tried to
get police to intervene, but since she was at the age of consent,
officials could do nothing.

(Canada increased the age of consent for sex from 14 to 16 on Feb.
28).

Dean said she went to court numerous times, each time begging the
judge to not allow her daughter back on the street.

"There was never any help - mind you, she didn't want any help," said
Dean. "She thought she wanted to be on the streets."

In December, when Dietz attempted to get her life straightened out,
her mother called the Iris Addiction Recovery for Women on her behalf.

The 12-bed treatment facility - the only residential program for women
16 and older north of Toronto - was full until April.

Limited funding forces the centre to close for two weeks each
summer.

Women typically must wait a few months before getting into the
five-week residential program, said executive director Kathryn
Irwin-Seguin. Referrals come from across the North and the province.
"Our numbers are going up for the younger clients," she said.

Although there are day programs in Sudbury for youth struggling with
drug and alcohol abuse, there's no residential program covered by OHIP
here. The closest is at the Sister Margaret Smith Centre in Thunder
Bay.

"We've been advocating for youth residential programs for years," said
Irwin-Seguin.

"It's been a concern for a long time and it doesn't seem to get any
play until somebody dies."

Paula Pacaud, 17, was close friends with Dietz. "She was a really
honest girl and loyal to her friends," said Pacaud who started the
Facebook group "R.I.P. Tierney."

"She was funny and had a great sense of humour."

Pacaud remembers going to the mall with her friend, although it didn't
matter where they were, she enjoyed her company.

Her death and the circumstances surrounding her death broke Pacaud's
heart.

"For the last couple of months we hardly talked - we had our
arguments," she said.

"She forgave me. I know that much."

Pacaud didn't hang around Dietz's group of friends because she was
trying to go back to school and "be good." Dietz was trying the same.
"She was doing really good, that's why I don't understand why this
happened," she said.

"Everyone has their days. It's hard, I know that."

Dietz was strong-willed and her friend believes she would have cleaned
up, but peer pressure is sometimes overpowering, said Pacaud.

"She always said she was going to be famous. Now she'll never get the
chance."

Dietz often told her mom "this town was bad for drugs." Sudbury's
deputy police chief agrees.

"We're seeing another prevalence of coke coming into this city again,"
Elsner said.

"It comes in waves. Right now it's coke and ecstasy - we're seeing
lots of that."

Elsner said there's a better quality and higher quantity of cocaine in
the city than there has been in years.

"We have a very affluent population here now, so they can afford those
drugs, easier than before," said Elsner.

As long as there's a market, drugs - specifically cocaine - will be
available.

It's getting more difficult to conduct illegal activity in the Greater
Toronto Area, so gangs are moving out and into cities like Sudbury.

"There's a lot of different looks," Elsner said about the faces of
organized crime trying the Sudbury market. "We're seeing the bikers up
here, organized groups of the Toronto area ...

"So, we have to ramp up our resources so that it's not easy so they
don't come here ... we're trying to prove to them this is a terrible
market."

Every weekend, police carry out search warrants and raid crack houses
in the city. Police shut down the drug havens, but they quickly reopen
elsewhere.

However, Elsner would not say whether any drugs were seized from the
Lively home where Dietz died.

The 47-year-old man who was with the two girls Feb. 29 was renting a
room out in the home, Dietz's mother said. The homeowner has since
died.

Dr. Chris Bourdon sees an alarming number of teens and young adults
coming into the emergency department suffering from overdoses of
recreational drugs and alcohol.

"Alcohol or drug related problems are a daily occurrence in our
department," said Bourdon.

"That's something we see every day."

Sudbury Regional Hospital's intake of overdose patients is high, and
statistics are comparable to patients suffering from other chronic
illnesses, such as heart disease, he said. "We parallel and in some
areas like that, are worse than (the rest of) Canada," said Bourdon.

Medical personnel provide supportive measures when treating a drug
overdose like cocaine or heroin.

"We may need to provide support to the heart, open up the artery to
stabilize the artery and make sure the heart gets good circulation.
Cocaine can cause spasming in the coronary arteries.

"If we ever see young adults coming in, looking like they're having
heart attacks, one question we ask them in confidence is: 'Have you
been using cocaine?' It will mimic heart attacks in an age group we
wouldn't normally see heart attacks."

If you survive an overdose, you may suffer a brain injury depending on
the time your brain has gone without oxygen.

Alcohol poisoning can lead to passing out and you can stop breathing.
Even then, there is "ample time" to seek medical care, said Bourdon.

"What is extremely important is to avoid these drugs because they are
extremely dangerous," said Bourdon.

"That's my overriding message. If you're in a situation where you've
made a mistake, you're in a group and someone has taken these drugs,
first and foremost is to care enough about human life to get help.

"Sure, you're in a situation where you might get into trouble, but it
pales in comparison to death in my book. You can't have a blatant
disregard for human life at the expense of saving your reputation or
avoiding prosecution."